Alright so yesterday I got fed up with wasting gas on those endless highway drives behind slowpokes. Remembered my buddy saying his BMW practically drives itself. Went digging through the garage manual and sure enough, found some ACC thing mentioned. Figured, hey, if my car’s got it, why not try making this stupid cruise control actually do something useful?
The “What the Heck is This?” Phase
Fired up the car, sat there staring at the steering wheel like an idiot. Saw the regular cruise control buttons, nothing fancy. My manual was confusing, kept talking about “Dynamic Safety Systems”. Real helpful. Started just hammering buttons near the cruise control.
Pressed the “Mode” button like five times in frustration. Boom! This little icon popped up on the dashboard – looked like a speedometer with a car silhouette behind it. Okay, maybe that’s it. Buttons suddenly seemed different: “Set”, “Resume”, “Distance”, and that “Mode” button changed colour! Success… kind of.
Throwing It at the Highway
Took the beast onto the boring highway stretch, followed a stupid slow minivan. Here goes nothing. Whacked the “Set” button when I hit like 60 mph. Car locked onto that speed, engine humming along. Felt normal. Then… the magic. Minivan slowed down a tiny bit. My foot was off the gas AND brake, just hovering nervously. Before I could freak out, the BMW quietly started slowing down too! Kept this gap of a few car lengths, like it had eyes! Seriously, felt like the car was ghost-braking, super smooth.
Gaps were too big though. Tried pressing that new “Distance” button I found earlier. Did it while following. Each press made the gap a bit smaller on the dashboard graphic. Found a sweet spot where it didn’t feel like I was inviting people to cut in, but wasn’t tailgating either. Awesome.
The “Not-So-Perfect” Part
Got bold. Tried it near an off-ramp. Big mistake. This idiot in front slammed his brakes at the last second to cut across lanes for his exit. My BMW freaked out! Beeped loudly like a maniac and slammed the brakes hard. Coffee went flying. Felt like it overreacted big time. Lesson learned: ACC hates sudden stupidity right near exits.
Also tried setting a higher speed when it was following slow traffic. Pushed the “+” button. Car smoothly sped up… until it caught up to the car ahead again, then just chilled behind them. Couldn’t make it zoom past automatically like magic. Still gotta manually steer and pass like usual. Felt kinda lazy on BMW’s part.
Verdict? Mostly Awesome!
Okay, so it’s not going to make your commute feel like a nap. You absolutely gotta keep your hands on the wheel and eyes on the road. It gets confused by jerks cutting in last second.
- Big Win: Makes highway traffic jams WAY less annoying. Saves your feet. Probably saves gas too.
- Big Win: Having the car slow down automatically, not just speed up? Genius. Feels safer than old dumb cruise.
- Annoyance: The panic braking near exits. Scared the bejesus out of me. Gotta anticipate that.
- Annoyance: Still gotta do the passing yourself. Boo.
Overall? Best feature nobody told me about when I bought the damn thing. Would still rather eat noodles than drive long distances without it now. Takes some trial and error, but wow, driving feels a bit smarter. Just maybe keep a lid on your coffee cup.
